


heliophilia

by audentis



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Olympics, Chapter 402 Spoilers, Fluff, I promise, M/M, Mutual Pining, No Angst, Pining, Timeskip, background olympics, self indulgent, very self indulgent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:02:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25425082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/audentis/pseuds/audentis
Summary: Akaashi Keiji loved the stars, but more than anything, he wanted to touch the sun.
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou
Comments: 28
Kudos: 116





	heliophilia

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Tiếng Việt available: [heliophilia (trans)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26922562) by [softheartedgirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/softheartedgirl/pseuds/softheartedgirl)



> Dedicated to the Bokuaka Cult, thank you for supporting me through this!
> 
> hihi! This is my first attempt at a fic and I still can't believe I finished it but yeah this was pure self indulgence and was only supposed to go to 500 words maximum but I got a little to into writing it ksadhflkj. This is for all the bokuaka stans out there, it's my turn to feed you now. Hope you enjoy it!

Akaashi Keiji loved the stars. If you pointed at one of the tiny, twinkling jewels that shone bright against the dark night, he could probably tell you it's name. 

Amateur astronomy, you would probably think, a deep fascination with the vast unknown. But you see, the stars whispered a message, one that could only be heard by those whose hearts were open enough to accept it. And Akaashi had opened his whole heart to listening.

Bokuto Koutarou was not like any other star. Akaashi knew that from the very beginning. And so the boy who loved the stars gave him the biggest, brightest one. The one that lit up vast lands, and deep oceans, and basked the world in it's golden brilliance.

He gave him the sun.

The sun, the sun, the sun. In all its glory, and excellence, there but not, seen but never touched, close yet painfully unattainable. And so the boy who so desperately wanted to touch the sun built wings out of held out hopes and wondrous dreams, and the promises that the stars had whispered to him. 

He soared, and soared until he caught it in his grasps, until he touched the light of the sun and basked in all its golden brilliance. And it was like the strings of fate itself, intertwining together in a beautiful dance. A hymn sung by so few, it was hypnotizing, mesmerizing to the many who looked on. 

The boy and the sun became inseparable, caught up in the whirl wind of growing up, and of finding and losing themselves, of past failures and present victories. There were moments where they could look at one another, and time would freeze. After all, what else mattered when you were in the presence of the world and the sun themselves?

It was moments like these where Akaashi's love for his sun only swelled in his heart. All his life, he had never done more than what was required of him. Yet, whenever he was around Bokuto, he felt like he wanted to give his whole self to him.

And they grew up. Going separate ways, but staying as close as they always had, only ever straying as far as the Earth strayed from the sun. 

"Bokuto-san, it's two in the morning. Why are you still awake?"

"It's only seven pm over here! I'll go to sleep early, I promise!"

Akaashi didn't have the heart to get mad. After all, how could the heart anger at it's placeholder?

"Say, Kashi. When I fly back next week, we're gonna go out, just the two of us!"

"I'm assuming that wasn't a request?"

"I mean...you don't have to if you don't want too."

"I would love to, Bokuto-san."

"I'll text you the date and the time!"

Akaashi didn't tell him about the stack of deadlines that was dejectedly piling up, not did he tell him about how his hear did Olympic-worthy somersaults in his chest. But the sleepless nights, and the weight of the universe was worth it, if it meant seeing his sun one more time.

The years had been kind to the boy and his sun. Reunions with friends old and new, late night calls that stretched into the early morning, and the occasional restaurant dates like this one, wherever they could squeeze it into their hectic schedules.

Although, Akaashi didn't know if he could call it a date.

Koutarou.

It could have been any other name written in the sand by the governors of the universe but to Akaashi, it was everything.

Koutarou.

He loved the way it sounded, every rise, and every fall, and every sound that came with it's utterance. He loved it more than just being the most beautiful word in existence. He love it because it belonged to the most beautiful person in existence.

Koutarou.

He whispered it when his back was turned. He whispered it when chants and cheers drowned it out. He whispered it when no one had the faintest idea that the boy who loved the stars had found his sun.

But it would be more than a whisper when he finally told him.

The whole stadium vibrated with an other-worldly energy, thousands of bodies moving to the beat of the drums, whipped up in the fervor of the moment. The whistles, the chants, the slap of a hand, and the thud of the ball. It all felt so familiar to Akaashi.

It was like he never left being the boy at fourteen who looked straight at the blazing sun for the first time, reveling in its excellence.

It was like he never left being the boy at sixteen who opened his heart to the stars to receive their messages, to unravel their secrets with threads of hope and a heart of longing.

It was like he never left being the boy at twenty-two who tried so hard to forget when he realized, he could never love another.

"-and Kageyama Tobio sets the ball from the other side of the court with ease! Now what do we have here? Four attackers, coming from all directions?"

"Japan is at match point, they cannot risk losing their hard fought lead against Argentina."

"Ushijima is in the perfect position to perform his signature left handed attack, but no! Bokuto Koutarou coming in with a sneak from the left!"

"AND HE SMASHED THE BALL INTO A HAIR SPLITTING LINE SHOT AND HE'S DONE IT! JAPAN'S ACE HAS JUST SECURED A HISTORIC WIN AGAINST THE WORLD NUMBER FIVE, ARGENTINA!"

The buzzer rang out, and the crowd went wild, but amidst the jubilation, Akaashi could only see one.

"AKAAMSHI! Wasn't I great?"

"Of course, Bokuto-san! You did great as always!"

He looked good in the red and black of Japan. Akaashi could only gape in awe as he watched how his sun carried their country's flag over his shoulders. How, despite the hard fought battle, he seemed to glow with a luminance so much brighter than before.

It was now or never.

"Bokuto-san, I-"

"I like you, Akaashi!"

Akaashi had felt like he was standing in front of the waiting maw of a black hole. Authoritative gravity sucking him in as he braced himself for this very moment, the pull of dread, and the words of inevitable rejection playing. But at the sound of those words, those four beautiful words, something surfaced.

Maybe it was the thread of hope that he was so desperately clinging onto, or maybe it was the wondrous dreams of an impossible future, or maybe it was something else Akaashi was entirely unaware off. 

He ignored the earnest stares they had earned from the rest of the team. He ignored the hoards of fans cheering Bokuto's name. he ignored it all. Because at that very moment, nothing else mattered, only the incessant beating of his heart, and his world turning upside down.

"I've liked you since high school. I mean how could I not, you're Akaashi! Who couldn't have a crush on you? I mean that's what I thought at first anyway, until I graduated, and I didn't see you everyday anymore, and I really missed you, you know? I kinda put two and two together after that."

Akaashi was still rooted to the floor, legs unmoving weighed down by weights of lead, the world quiet around them. Nothing else mattered.

"And then last year, remember when we went out for yakiniku, and you drank a little bit too much and got all cute and flushed the whole time. Yeah, that basically confirmed I'd fallen for you."

The reporters and fans had started to pick up on what was going on. A few of them started pointing their cameras towards them.

"I wanted to tell you, I really did! But I was scared, you know. I mean, what if you didn't like me back, and what if yo-"

It was at that moment Akaashi found himself again. And with his refound ability, he cupped his face in his hands, and stared into the face of beauty, the face he spent years gazing at, hoping that maybe someday, that beautiful face would return it to him.

  
"No, no, stop, please!"

"So you don't-"

"No, I-I like you too, Bokuto-san. I really like you."

If time had not already come to a screeching halt, it did at that very moment. The stadium disappeared, the noise, the crowds, the glaring lights, all melting into the background. Nothing else mattered, for the only thing Akaashi could see was his sun. 

His sun that glowed with the luminescence of a thousand stars. His sun that had encapsulated the twenty-six years of his meager earthy life. His sun, a blazing body in the sky, so endearingly close, he could feel its burning heat on his face.

Maybe a hidden message really was whispered by the stars that fateful night. Maybe there was a little red string of fate, patiently waiting for us to intertwine our souls in. Maybe the boy who loved the stars did build brass wings that propelled him to the sun.

Because at that moment, as their lips touched, universes seemed to collide with the titanical force of binary stars going supernova.

"I love you, Keiji."

And maybe the boy who had loved the stars so dearly had opened his whole heart to listening. And maybe he had grabbed a hold of fate's string and weaved it into the fabric of space and time itself. And maybe those threaded dreams and bandaged hopes, that heart of longing and will to touch the sun had served their purpose.

"I love you, Koutarou."

Akaashi Keiji loved the stars, but he no longer longed to touch them like he had before. For on the better side of twenty-six and a half, he had finally touched the sun.


End file.
